Call Tracking / Features, Tips, & Announcements — No comments
19
Nov 12

Call Tracking for Agency Accounts

In an effort to build business and loyalty among customers, agencies have found that diversification among product offerings has become essential. Offering clients a “one-stop shop” of products and services that meet varying needs has become a comprehensive strategy for increasing profitability among all business entities. When agencies execute a comprehensive strategy, a tighter bond is formed with the client.  Typical advertising agencies do not have the resources to provide all of the solutions that their clients require and therefore use third party “white labeled” systems as a way of integrating multiple platforms under the same branding. Many software companies allow agencies to white label their service so that it appears as their own. By doing this, agencies are able to provide an interface where all analytics that are provided are being done so by the third party, but are branded as if they are coming from the agency.

What do clients need from an agency? Agencies sell their services based on what a potential client needs at a particular point in time, such as their design services, development, creative, etc. But as a web presence has becomes essential from all brands, clients realize that they need to be driving online traffic to their website organically or with the help of a pay-per-click campaign. Over time agencies have learned that the use of third party analytics tools, and the associated data, are a necessity as they allow them to quickly and effectively validate the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns to their clients. As an agency, it is important to focus on a clients’ long term expected needs as well as their lifetime value to your business, in order to create a mutually profitable relationship.

How do we help agencies? When clients decide to take advantage of an agency’s advanced services, there becomes a need for agencies to justify the increased spending that occurs as a result. With our service agencies are able to track and measure the effectiveness of their online advertising and the offline phone call conversion that happens as a result.  For clients that have a web presence, but convert primarily over the phone, this is an essential correlation to make. White-labeling allows agencies to provide the metrics necessary in order to make an effective decision when it comes to how much is spent on marketing. For an agency, the ability to choose the right third party platforms for their clients is critical and is the difference between being seen as an indispensible partner for success or just another line item on a budget.

 

Clients rely on agencies to become thought leaders and trusted partners that are necessary for bringing new ideas, fresh perspectives and useful technologies to the table that are essential for growing a business. By becoming a strategic partner to agencies, we are able to help them directly measure the success of their initiatives as well as create long term and valuable client partnerships.

Interested in finding out more about how our technologies work and how we are best utilized as a partner? Contact us today!

 

Call Tracking / Features, Tips, & Announcements / Social Media — No comments
17
Oct 12

Use Source Level Call Tracking to gain insight into your Facebook Advertising Conversions

Recently, the largest social media platform, Facebook, launched a new advertising initiative called Facebook Exchange as way to combat investor skepticism of its ability to become profitable. Since Facebook launched its IPO in May, many investors have been concerned regarding Facebook’s ability to monetize the value of its billion users.

Facebook Exchange taps into the power of retargeting, a technique that so many of the search engine powerhouses have already discovered. Retargeting allows companies to track a user’s visit and behavior using cookies, and as a result they are able to dish up targeted ads when the user is browsing the web, and now also when they are surfing Facebook.

The goal of the retargeted ad is simply to get users to click back onto the retail site that they visited earlier before, in effect, creating a new opportunity for the retailer to convert the visitor into a customer. The benefit of retargeting for Facebook is the increase in advertising revenue, which by some accounts has surged nearly 58% in the last year.

Most marketers are aware of how to track online conversions, but what about the offline conversions?

In many cases an offline conversion, via a phone call, is the result of an online advertisement click. The question comes into play as to how advertisers are able to associate the offline conversion to the online advertising source. And, why, in the instance of Facebook Exchange advertising is it valuable to track these conversions?

Because of the rising cost of online advertising, especially with Facebook, associating an offline conversion to the online source is essential. By implementing a source level call tracking phone number, all Facebook users who click on the retargeted ad will in effect see the same phone number on the website.

Source level call tracking allows marketers to attribute the offline conversion customer to the online advertising source.   Essentially, marketers can provision a call tracking phone number for any one of their online ad sources including Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, etc.  With this information, advertisers are able to see the aggregate number of calls from each online source and as a result can optimize their online advertising budgets towards the best performing campaigns.

For more information regarding out Source level call tracking or questions on how call tracking may work best for you contact our team!

Analytics / Call Tracking / Features, Tips, & Announcements — No comments
09
Oct 12

Google’s Impact on Call Tracking

Last week Mongoose Metrics attended the Search Marketing Expo in New York City, in which Jeff Culliton, one of our Business Development Managers, presented on the subject of Google’s recent privacy policy updates and the impact on phone call tracking and the changes in the resulting analytics. This presentation was so well received that we thought we’d share the highlights with you.

First, how did Google’s privacy policy change? Google combined the privacy properties for all of their entities including Google +, YouTube and  Picasa so that when a user logs into one account and accepts a discloser form, it then allows Google to track user behavior across all business entities.

By having users accept the unified policy, Google is able to paint an even more detailed profile for each individual user who utilizes Google as a search engine. With this super granular profile information Google can provide potential advertisers with the  most detailed demographic info and consequently serve up the most pertinent ad to you. Google made this update as a way to make searches more private but also to know the user better and therefore give an overall better user experience.

Second, there is a downside (for marketers that is). When a user is logged into a secure Google account, Google will no longer provide analytic platforms with the organic search terms that the user searched for but will provide the search terms for all pay-per-click campaigns. For marketers and analytical trackers, this provides less information about user behavior and lessens the ability to optimize campaigns for organic keyword performance.

Third, what is the direct impact on analytic companies? We are now stuck with the dreaded “unknown” keyword in which we are unable to correlate phone calls to. At the moment no one knows for sure what the total impact of these changes are, but, current estimates place the number of secure Google searches between 7%-14%.   This number will no doubt climb as consumer privacy concerns continue to mount and undoubtedly certain verticals will be impacted at higher rates than others.

The only thing that is for certain is that search engine optimization professionals are going to have to find new and creative ways to optimize campaigns and await the next change from the web master (a.k.a. Google)

Follow Jeff on Twitter @jeffculltion for more happenin’ tidbits.

 

 

 

Analytics / Call Tracking / Social Media — No comments
19
Sep 12

Soft Metrics may be the most popular but deeper insight is available with Mongoose Call Tracking

In this recent article posted by emarketer, it is stated that “57% of companies around the world said the deepest level at which they could track the effectiveness of social media marketing was in terms of engagement, such as the number of followers, comments and time spent on social pages. Even more agencies said this was the deepest metric their clients could track.”

Marketers attempt to connect their social media efforts to the company bottom line in a way that will not only justify that their efforts generate brand buzz but also result in sales.  Measuring success beyond soft metrics can seem difficult and few companies are aware that they are able to track bottom-line effects on revenues.

Traditional call tracking services have been around for years, but many businesses may be unaware of the ways to leverage traditional services in new marketing channels. When a unique phone call tracking phone number is utilized correctly, it can provide powerful insight into which marketing campaigns are driving phone calls and in the end, converting to sales.

Here’s how it works: A unique phone number is assigned to each social media channel, such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.  When those phone numbers are called, they can be correlated with those individual social media channels.

By assigning a unique phone number to each channel, companies can easily measure the value and significance of each marketing effort as well as attribute the correct dollar amount to the sales cycle.

 

Call Tracking / Features, Tips, & Announcements — No comments
01
Aug 12

The Importance of Implementing Call Tracking by White Shark Media

For marketing campaigns with phone call touch-points, call tracking has become a widely used tool in our industry.  One such example of use is from Grethel Luna with White Shark Media.  She provided a clear case for using call tracking and how the technology lifts campaign ROI in her post, “The Importance of Implementing Call Tracking.”

The post provides a great check-list of campaign dimensions that favor the use of call tracking as well as a list of call tracking best practices that marketers need to keep in mind when embarking on call tracking campaigns.  Finally, there is case study campaign data shared which demonstrates how call tracking improves the understanding of campaign value to the client.

 

Features, Tips, & Announcements / PPC / SEM / SEO — 1 comment
03
Jul 12

How to Efficiently Drive Online Traffic and Effectively Measure Offline Phone Conversions

In today’s multi-channel world, people are searching online, visiting stores to test out the products, returning to the Internet to compare prices and then completing the purchases either online, in the store or over the phone.

With so much competition on the web, it can be a race to the top of the search engine lists page. Search engine optimization is important for businesses to rank organically over time, but what if you’re looking for immediate results? Generating a substantial amount of traffic through a search engine marketing (SEM), sometimes referred to as cost-per-click or pay-per-click, campaign may costs thousands of dollars in order to increase sales and in the end it may be clear as to how many thousands of potential consumers saw and clicked on the ad, but unclear as to how many of those potential customers followed through and converted offline via a phone call. Marketers must be prepared to measure the offline conversions in order to justify the spending. When marketers simply measure clicks alone, they don’t have a complete picture of the conversion value.

By utilizing SEM as well as a source or keyword level call tracking service, businesses will be able to efficiently drive online traffic and effectively measure the campaign that drove the call along with the sale that happened as a result.

Our new white paper, Your Guide to Driving Online Traffic and Measuring Offline Phone Conversions, was written in collaboration with Elite SEM, a New York based digital marketing agency. In this whitepaper we review how to leverage online advertising to its fullest by generating quality SEM and measuring offline phone conversion with the latest advances in phone call tracking.

For questions regarding this whitepaper please contact Pamela McGowan.

 

Features, Tips, & Announcements — No comments
26
Jun 12

Myths of Phone Call Tracking: An employee has to keep track of different phone numbers and associate them to multiple campaigns

With a source or keyword level call tracking solution installed on your website, a dynamic phone number will be associated with each unique visitor. This unique phone number is essential so that when a visitor converts via an offline phone call, marketers will be able to associate the resulting offline phone conversion with the proper online source or campaign.

Some may wonder, “who keeps track of all the unique phone numbers and the individual calls?” Does the person accepting the phone calls need to keep track of each phone number and phone call in order to properly measure the ROI on each marketing campaign?

The Answer: Absolutely Not!

Here’s how it works:

When a visitor comes to the website and dials the unique phone number associated with their browsing session, the phone call seamlessly passes through a Mongoose Metrics server that connects the call to the location of your choice.

Once the call happens, the record is added to the Mongoose Metrics client dashboard. When the client logs into either their Mongoose Metrics account, or their chosen integrated partner website such as a bid management or analytics platform, they will be able to view the call detail report that incorporates all of the essential granular information including:

  • The persons caller ID
  • The date and time the call occurred
  • The tracking phone number that was dialed and destination number it was connected to
  • The keyword and source that drove the call
  • The phone number associated with the campaign

With all of this granular information included, the client is able to export the information from the dashboard into an excel document in order to aggregate all of the necessary information.

With the advancements in call tracking technology and third party integrations marketers have the tools to tie together a complete picture surrounding their marketing campaigns. Having clarity surrounding the marketing performance results in better spending decisions and ultimately higher returns on marketing dollars.

Features, Tips, & Announcements — No comments
19
Jun 12

Myths of Phone Call Tracking: The extra investment won’t yield any return

Direct advertisers that are looking to yield immediate sales often invest in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising by utilizing a SEO/SEM agency in order to drive site traffic. Sometimes PPC can prove to be a very cost effective strategy for acquiring new customers quickly, but depending on what you’re paying an agency partner to generate leads and the keyword competitiveness for your particular vertical, advertisers should expect to shell out some major dollars in some cases.

For a business that has a strong web presence, but the main point of conversion is over the phone how can they tell if their PPC advertising is effective and worth the investment?

With the advancements in call tracking technology and the growing number of integrations into third party systems, businesses now have all the tools necessary to measure the offline effectiveness of their online marketing campaigns.

Here’s how it works:

1)   A call tracking solution that tracks users at the session level will be installed on the website and as a result a dynamic phone call tracking number will be associated with each unique visitor.

2)   A visitor comes to the website from a PPC ad and places a call to the unique call tracking phone number.

3)   The customer service/sales team on the other end takes the call and all necessary sales information will be entered into the businesses CRM and will be marked as a lead.

4)   When integrated with a CRM, all of the granular information that is associated with the tracking phone number is automatically populated to the lead that has been created.

5)   With this populated information, businesses are able to analyze if the phone lead converted into a sale and if so how much revenue can be attributed to that one PPC ad.

 

Consider this example:

Jack’s Tractor Sales has decided to hire a PPC agency that is integrated with call tracking technologies in order to drive immediate traffic to Jack’s remaining 2011 inventory.  Jack’s total monthly investment for pay per click, including all agency fees is $5,000.

Over the course of the first month Jack’s ads got over 1,000 clicks and from those 1,000 clicks Jack’s business received 40 phone calls, or a 4% call through rate on his paid web traffic.

John Smith, while doing research online, stumbles across Jack’s PPC ad and clicks on it taking him to Jack’s landing page.  After calling and setting an appointment with one of Jack’s sales staff, John Smith purchased the remaining 2011 red tractor for $75,000.

So Jack, knowing that he owned that red tractor for $70,000 was able to ascertain that $5,000 worth of profit was derived from that specific PPC ad, helping to recoup all of the agency investment on his first deal.

Because Jack’s business had a call tracking solution in place that was tied to his CRM system, he was not only able to determine that those 40 calls was generated from his PPC efforts, but also who each one of those 40 potential customers was.  Seeing as Jack’s sales team has an average closing rate of 25%, and an average profit per deal of $5,000 he was able to determine that 10 new customers and $50,000 of new profit were generated by his investment in pay per click campaigns.

By doing this, Jack was able to get a complete view of the sales cycle, connecting the online clicks to the offline sales.  Using this data Jack can now collaborate with his PPC agency to dissect the keywords that most frequently drove phone calls in order to direct a larger amount of their PPC budget to those words.

Though it’s important to see how many clicks happen as a result of your PPC campaign it is even more important to see how many sales result! Is your PPC campaign really generating the sales necessary to justify the cost? In Jack’s example the extra investment yielded a greater return!

Features, Tips, & Announcements — No comments
11
Jun 12

Myths of Phone Call Tracking: A dynamic call tracking phone number ruins SEO

The days of looking up business contact information in a phone book are nearly extinct. Due to the growth, expansion and everyday use of the Internet and search engines, like Google, Bing and Yahoo, potential buyers are able to search, locate, select and purchase any product of their choice. With so much competition out there, many businesses see online advertising as a daunting task. These days, how does a business get noticed, convert sales, and measure the ROI for their advertising initiatives on the web?

While some businesses may rely on organic search through search engines, many times in order to appear higher in the search results a business must ensure that the site is legitimate, popular, relevant and credible. Other businesses may be more inclined to invest in various online marketing efforts including: online advertisements, PPC and web banners. Either way, whether traffic comes to your website through organic or paid search, businesses should be measuring their marketing efforts in order to efficiently see the return on investment. One way to measure your ROI is by installing a source or keyword level call tracking phone number on your website.

With a source or keyword level call tracking software installed on the website a unique phone number is associated with each unique visitor, and all granular data, including keyword, source, and media type is tracked and associated with each and any offline phone call conversion.

Some may wonder, “With each visitor seeing a different phone number, won’t that effect my site’s relevancy with the different search engine algorithms and therefore my all important page ranking?” The answer: It will not! When a source or keyword level call tracking solution is installed on your website the business phone number is hard coded onto the site and when a unique visitor comes to the site our small snippet of code runs almost instantaneously and replaces the phone number with a unique number for that user. Therefore, the search engines that are crawling your site see the hard coded default number in the source code and NOT the number that is dynamically replaced once the page has loaded.  This methodology is used specifically to ensure that all of the hard work you’ve done to be ranked highly by Google, Bing and Yahoo isn’t hindered by a call tracking software like Mongoose Metrics.

With the indepth information that is returned from the tracked calls, businesses will be able to determine the value and significance of their advertising campaigns along with the offline phone call conversions that are generated from their online marketing initiatives.

Features, Tips, & Announcements / Social Media — No comments
04
Jun 12

The State of Automotive Social Media Marketing

In our recent data series report, The State of Automotive Marketing, we retrieved and compared data on the engagement ratios of Facebook pages within the automotive industry. Of the 17,669 automotive dealership websites we crawled, 38% had Facebook pages, 24% had Twitter pages, 23% had YouTube stations, and 22% of the total 17,669 utilized both Facebook and Twitter together to communicate their brand. Automotive dealerships have had to grow and adjust their messaging to appeal and communicate via social media outlets. As Facebook users are becoming inundated with information, dealers are forced to become social media experts and are collaborating to create content that will break through all of the noise in order to capture the attention of a diversified audience.

Four years ago, as Facebook Pages were first evolving many businesses considered their social media efforts to be successful if the Page was generating a sufficient amount of “likes.” In the automotive industry many dealerships and brands may still consider a substantial amount of “likes” to be successful. But, is this beneficial?

Take a look at the tope 12 car brands by “likes” and engagement:

In many cases, within the table, the car brand that had the lowest amount of “likes” had the highest amount of engagement and the car brand that had the highest amount of “likes” had the lowest amount of engagement.  It’s about quality NOT quantity!

Getting people to “like” your Page is only half the battle. After they’ve committed to liking your brand or business, the main focus of engagement becomes how involved and responsive are your followers to your content. Are you creating content that is generating conversation, is shared among followers or is liked? Are you measuring your engagement to see how effective your content is? Last October, Facebook overhauled its Page analytics tool and added a new metric, called “People Talking About” as a way for administrators to gauge overall Page engagement. People Talking About acts a barometer of how much conversation and user-initiated activity is occurring related to a Page.

Knowing now that this metric is in place, we wanted to take a closer look at individual Acura dealers to evaluate the relationship of “likes” and engagement.

Dave White Acura has the top amount of “likes” with 150,655 and an engagement ratio of .84% while Goodson Acura has 1,618 “likes” and an engagement ratio of 2.72%. Just as important as it is to gain “likes,” like Dave White Acura, it is even more important to build engagement, like Goodson Acura, as your fan group will act as your brand ambassadors and influencers.

In the past, “likes” were considered to be the main metric for measuring engagement, but as Pages have evolved and competition for consumer attention has become fierce the driving force for the engagement ratio has become centered around the level of interaction.